Objective

The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has provided recommendations on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) as guidance on competencies relevant to education of BMHI specialists. However, it remains unclear how well these competencies have been adopted to guide emerging degree programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We evaluated comprehensiveness of IMIA-recommended competency coverage by Masters in Health Informatics (MSc HI) programs in East Africa.

Materials and methods

Two investigators independently reviewed curricula for seven accredited MSc HI university programs in the East Africa region to extract covered competencies using an instrument based on the IMIA education recommendations. Descriptive statistics were used to determine competency coverage by institution and across institutions and by IMIA-defined competency domains. Duplication of competency coverage in courses within each curriculum was also evaluated. Multivariable logistic regression was used to test whether coverage of IMIA-recommended competencies differed between institutions.

Results

Cohen’s Kappa for coding competencies within courses was 0.738 (95% CI, 0.713–0.764). Coverage of the 40 recommended required IMIA competencies by institutional curricula ranged from 25 (62.5%) to 39 (97.5%) (p < 0.0001), with only 18 (45%) of these competencies covered by all seven institutions. No significant variations in competency coverage were observed between the domains of information sciences (83.7%), health sciences (71.4%), and core BMHI competencies (83.5%) (p = 0.13). On average, each competency was covered by 3.06 courses in each curriculum (range 0 - 14). Curricula also contained 25 additional competencies not part of the IMIA recommendations, 15 of which were found only within the curriculum of a single institution.

Discussion

There is significant variability in coverage of IMIA-recommended competencies across MSc HI curricula evaluated, with observed duplication of competency coverage within each curriculum. The additional competencies uncovered that were not part of the IMIA-recommendations were not universally shared across institutions.

Conclusion

The IMIA education recommendations provide a relevant, comprehensive reference guide for developing and improving health informatics degree programs within LMIC settings. Variability in competency coverage needs to be addressed for institutions within similar educational and labor regions.

中文翻译：

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东非卫生信息学学位课程的硕士课程覆盖IMIA推荐的能力。

目的

国际医学信息学协会（IMIA）提供了有关生物医学和健康信息学（BMHI）教育的建议，作为与BMHI专家教育相关的能力指南。但是，尚不清楚这些能力如何被用来指导中低收入国家（LMIC）的新兴学位课程。我们评估了东非健康信息学硕士（MSc HI）计划对IMIA推荐的能力覆盖范围的全面性。

材料和方法

两名调查人员独立审查了东非地区七个获得MSc HI认可大学课程的课程，以使用基于IMIA教育建议的工具来提取涵盖的能力。描述性统计数据用于确定机构和跨机构以及IMIA定义的能力范围的能力覆盖范围。还评估了每个课程中课程能力的覆盖范围。多变量逻辑回归用于检验各机构之间IMIA推荐能力的覆盖范围是否不同。

结果

科恩针对课程内编码能力的Kappa为0.738（95％CI，0.713-0.764）。机构课程涵盖40个建议的IMIA所需能力，范围从25（62.5％）到39（97.5％）（p <0.0001），而这七个机构中只有18（45％）个。信息科学（83.7％），健康科学（71.4％）和BMHI核心能力（83.5％）之间的能力覆盖率没有显着变化（p = 0.13）。平均而言，每个课程的每门能力都涵盖3.06门课程（范围为0-14）。课程还包含25个其他能力，这不是IMIA建议的一部分，其中15个仅在单个机构的课程中发现。

讨论区

在评估的MSc HI课程中，IMIA推荐的能力覆盖范围存在很大差异，并且在每个课程中观察到的能力覆盖范围存在重复。不属于IMIA建议的其他能力并未在各个机构之间普遍共享。

结论

IMIA教育建议为在LMIC环境中开发和改善健康信息学学位课程提供了相关的综合参考指南。需要为类似的教育和劳工区域内的机构解决能力覆盖范围的差异。